“I am going to write fire until it comes out of my ears, my eyes, my noseholes–everywhere. Until it’s every breath I breathe. I’m going to go out like a fucking meteor!” Audre Lorde

I joined Feministing in February of 2005. At the time I was living in San Francisco, CA, and I was working as a substitute school teacher. I had little direction as to where my career was going, no “bigger plan” for myself or how I was going to weave in what I had been told I should cultivate – a passionate, righteous voice committed to gender justice.

When I started blogging, my writing was rough; it was angry and it was righteous. I have no formal training in ...

“I am going to write fire until it comes out of my ears, my eyes, my noseholes–everywhere. Until it’s every breath I breathe. I’m going to go out like a fucking meteor!” Audre Lorde

Friend of the site Rachel Hills has a piece in this week’s edition of the UK magazine The Stylist, about the misogyny that marked Julia Gillard’s short but eventful tenure as Prime Minister of Australia. Gillard was ousted earlier this year, replaced by the man she herself had ousted just a few years before. Hills examines the role of misogyny and sexism in the taking down of Gillard:

To understand what happened to Gillard, it’s crucial to first paint a picture of Australia’s political culture, which is in equal parts ruthless and irreverent, full of brutal bon mots and poll-driven leadership changes. As an Australian woman, my earliest political memory is watching the debonair Paul Keating – no stranger ...

Friend of the site Rachel Hills has a piece in this week’s edition of the UK magazine The Stylist, about the misogyny that marked Julia Gillard’s short but eventful tenure as Prime Minister of Australia. Gillard was ...

I’ve spent part of my time this fall as part of a team that created TEDxWomen’s third annual gathering. The event is a wild one–a day and half of packed programming in Washington D.C. with over 150 local self-organized events tuning in via live stream from every time zone in the world. That’s 150,000 potential people listening in at any given time.

So, obviously, the planning committee takes our speaker selections experience pretty seriously. We poured over a wide range of possible speakers, trying to discern how each would fit best into the various themed sessions. It’s a complex process–more an art than a science, as one might imagine. This ...

Brought to us by the Center for American Progress, this infographic examines the state of women of color in four key areas: the workplace wage gap, health, educational attainment, and political leadership — taken from an issue brief they just released. CAP reports:

Women of color have made incredible strides in educational attainment and in the workplace, but their earnings and net wealth still pale in comparison to white women. They also lag behind in political leadership positions and still face unique health disparities. Their voices are critical to shaping the policies that affect their lives.

Brought to us by the Center for American Progress, this infographic examines the state of women of color in four key areas: the workplace wage gap, health, educational attainment, and political leadership — taken from ...

So, Australia’s Foreign Minister resigned yesterday. He resigned at 1am yesterday at a hastily-convened press conference in Washington, DC, in the middle of a trip.

A little background, for those of you who aren’t Australian. Australia’s until-recently Foreign Minister is a man by the name of Kevin Rudd. In 2007, the Australian Labor Party swept into office, largely thanks to the energy created by the prospect of having Rudd as head of the party and therefore as Prime Minister. Rudd’s Deputy PM, Julia Gillard, was the first woman to serve as Deputy PM. And then, in 2010, after months of rumours of intraparty conflict and leadership struggles, the ALP booted Rudd and replaced him with Gillard.

Gillard became Australia’s first ...

So, Australia’s Foreign Minister resigned yesterday. He resigned at 1am yesterday at a hastily-convened press conference in Washington, DC, in the middle of a trip.

A little background, for those of you who aren’t Australian. Australia’s ...

Hundreds of Japanese women have been holding a sit in on the steps of the of the Japanese capital demanding that their government provide better relief for some 30,000 children exposed to nuclear radiation by the Fukushima meltdown.

She continued, “Our meetings with officials to force faster evacuation programmes for high-risk groups are only met with promises to clear radioactive waste. This is totally irresponsible.”

On Wednesday, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) admitted that one of the Fukushima reactors showed ...

Hundreds of Japanese women have been holding a sit in on the steps of the of the Japanese capital demanding that their government provide better relief for some 30,000 children exposed to nuclear radiation by ...